So You Think You Want A Fountain Pen …

And why not? Fountain pens are Teh Awesome. You go through life thinking these are okay writing utensils:

Skilcraft. BLEGH.

And really think you’re moving up in pen circles when you start using only Pilot G2s – which, admittedly, are the superior pen of choice for most offices.

Pilot G2. Periwinkle is the best color.

And life with your pens is pretty good. But then, you hear about fountain pens. You start reading about them, and if you’re lucky, get to see them in action, even WRITE with them. And if fountain pens were chocolate, suddenly you are strolling with Willy Wonka through a magical world of pens and ink samples and converters, and

But …. first you have to figure out how to get started. That is the question I get asked most often, what are some good beginner fountain pens that won’t break the bank? So without further ado, here are some entry-level finds to enable your new chocolate tasting.

Disposable/Uber Cheap Beginner’s Pens (less than $10 each):

Disposable pens are a super easy way to start writing with fountain pens. You don’t have to mess with the sometimes complicated or messy ink bottles or cartridges. On the downside, it’s often hard to find disposable fountain pens in stores. Either way, once you fall in love with how fountain pens write, you won’t be content with disposable for long – not with all the fantastic ink colors out there!

The Pilot Petit fountain pens are super adorable and mini-sized, perfect for bags and pockets. They’re also great writers and only $4, so don’t break the bank while you get used to them. And don’t they remind you of the old Apple Imacs when they first came out??

Next up are the Pilot Kakunos – unlike the Varsity or Petit pens, you can use either ink cartridges or converters to use all the gorgeous bottled inks out there. Not bad for less than $20 each. AND, the Kakunos (which come in lots of fun colors, btw), have SMILEY FACES on the nibs. Like, how can you go wrong? They also write really well.

The super affordable yet more professional looking Pilot Metropolitan is seriously a dark horse beginner fountain pen – it writes sooooo much better and is a higher quality than any $15 fountain pen has any right to be. Most of the colors are boring black, silver, gold bla bla bla – but I have this one, the White Tiger, and its awesome. There’s also a dark purple I have my eye on.

Now, on to the grand-daddy of beginner fountain pens – the Lamy Safari. This was my first fountain pen ever, and I’ve been in love ever since. It’s relatively affordable, super-durable plastic, has interchangeable nibs (if you don’t like a medium, for example, it’s super easy to swap to a fine or a calligraphy nib or whatever). It has a triangular grip, which is nice for FP newbies to learn how to hold it. And it comes in really fantastic colors – every year is a new Limited Edition color – this year’s was my new all-time favorite, the Neon Coral. I’ve been using and collecting Lamy’s for 6 years now, and seriously can’t praise them enough, and if you click through the tags on this blog you’ll see they make up like 80% of the pen pics I post. They are German-born pens though, so differ from the Pilots above in that they naturally have a wider line – the Lamy F is more like a Pilot M, for example.

Source: JetPens. Lamy Safari Neon Coral Fountain Pen

Don’t forget to check out Goulet Pens either, they have a great selection of Lamys.

Good selection of the low cost entry points into the world of fountain pens. Of course, Jet Pens is a good on-line source. I like to patronize Goulet Pen Company. http://www.gouletpens.com/ Brian, the co-founder/owner, has dozens of very helpful videos that teach us just about everything needed to learn to use and care for these pens. The ink sample options lets you spend just $1.50 to try out any ink in stock so you don’t have to buy the entire bottle. There is also a blog http://blog.gouletpens.com/ which has more helpful ideas and information.

A friend of mine did a test: which pens will still write after being neglected for a couple weeks. The Metropolitan was the winner.

My favorite entry level pen was a second-hand Ohto Poche which I bought for P500 (roughly $11). I enjoyed that pen a lot! +1 on the Pilot Metropolitan. Great nib, good weight on it, nice look and feel. 🙂

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